Mentors

Photography by Keith Boyer

Distinguished University Professor

The Distinguished University Professor for 2013–2014 is Victor Garcia, an anthropology faculty member and director of the Mid-Atlantic Addiction Research and Training Institute. IUP honors one faculty member each year with this lifetime title based on outstanding teaching, research, and scholarly activity and service. On the faculty since 1991, Garcia is known internationally as an expert on the study of Latino immigrants and migrants, the educational plight of Latinos, and substance abuse problems among transnational workers from Mexico and Central America. In the next year, he plans to revisit his work on treatment programs found in transnational Mexican communities and publish the results. Garcia has helped to recruit Latino students to IUP through community-based outreach and recruitment measures. He also developed a retention program for Latino students that is the first of its kind for a State System university.

Distinguished Faculty Members

The University Senate presented three Distinguished Faculty Awards in May:

Fredalene Barletta Bowers ’70, M’73, chair of the Department of Human Development and Environmental Studies, received the Distinguished Faculty Award for teaching, which recognizes her commitment to mentoring students and her implementation of a variety of teaching strategies to meet student needs.

Michael Sell, Department of English, received the Distinguished Faculty Award for research. Recognized internationally for his research on the avant-garde, he has written The Avant-Garde: Race Religion War, published in 2012, and is now co-writing The Avant-Garde: A Critical Introduction.

Edel Reilly D’07, Department of Mathematics, received the Distinguished Faculty Award for service. She has served in leadership roles related to curriculum and professional development and IUP faculty governance. Those roles have included chair of the Center for Teaching Excellence Advisory Board and secretary of the University Senate.

Contributions to Geography

Ruth Shirey ’65, professor emerita of geography, received the Ronald F. Abler Distinguished Service Honors Award in April from the Association of American Geographers. The award recognizes her contributions to the discipline, which have included serving for 14 years as executive director of the National Council for Geographic Education and as state coordinator for the Pennsylvania Geographic Alliance. She was also project administrator for the National Geography Standards Project and participated in the writing of Pennsylvania’s standards. Her guests at the AAG awards luncheon included former students Daniel Griffith’70, M’72, Xuan Shi M’01, and Dawn Drake’02. Shirey is a 2008 recipient of the IUP Distinguished Alumni Award.

Team Effort

In his new textbook, Professional Catering: The Modern Caterer’s Complete Guide to Success, Hospitality Management faculty member Stephen Shiring ’81, M’85 aims to equip readers with the knowledge and tools they need to start a competitive catering business. The book includes several photos from the Homer Laughlin China Company in West Virginia, a company with which Shiring developed a relationship after gaining an appreciation for its dinnerware early in his career. He also tapped a number of IUP resources. Faculty contributors to the book were Scott Decker ’85, M’89, Michael Korns ’81, M’03, D’09, and David Piper’84, M’89, M’92, D’00, all of the Employment and Labor Relations Department. Jennifer Braughler, of campus food service contractor Aramark, also assisted.

New Faculty Emeriti

The following faculty members were awarded emeritus/emerita status during the spring semester:

Dennis Ausel, Communications Media, 27 years of service
Barbara Blackledge, Theater, 31 years
Jennie Bullard, Employment and Labor Relations, 16 years
Carmy Carranza, Developmental Studies, 26 years
Carmine Cortazzo, Health and Physical Education, 30 years
Linda Klingaman, Health and Physical Education, 19 years
Daniel Perlongo, Music, 42 years
Charles Shubra, Computer Science, 34 years
Dan Tannacito, English, 33 years
Carleen Zoni, Health and Human Services, 39 years

Faculty Deaths

In recent months, the following faculty members and former faculty members died.

Neil Asting, a faculty member in the Chemistry Department from 1977 to 2004, died April 1, 2013.
Nicholas Christodouleas, a Chemistry Department faculty member from 1968 until 1999, died February 24, 2013.
James Dyal, a faculty member in the Economics Department from 1977 until 2012, died April 21, 2013.
Walt Granata, a founding member of the Geology Department on the faculty from 1967 until 1981, died April 18, 2013.
Thomas Vieli, an instructor in the Academy of Culinary Arts from 1994 to 1998, died May 28, 2013.